28 replies to this topic

[Bennie]

Ok you guys have really been makeing me want a new air rifle with all of your post on them. But I have been saving my penney's for a long time now for a precision long range center fire rifle and scope. And I am going to stay the course until I get one. So I asked an old freind of mine if he would help me with my old R1. He said no problem. He said to bring it over and we would tear it apart and see what it needs. So I did and here is what we orderd for it.1. JM's Old School Buttons2. Deluxe R1-Hw80 Power Kit3. HW-Weihrauch Breech Seals4. Vulcan SS R1-HW80, HW35-Theoben Piston Seals5. Double Size Moly Paste So am I nuts for putting $150.00 in parts in a air rifle that is twenty five years old. It has been through the 96 flood and spent two weeks under water. My buddie said I did an excellent job of takeing it apart and cleaning it after the flood. He said he would not have known if I did not tell him. He said these old R1's were classic's and I could sell it real easy so don't worry about putting a few dollars in it. What do you guys Think??PS. I will be getting another newer air rifle but it is third on my list of want's right now.

[ShooterJohn]

Bennie, those old Beeman's are very sought after. I would say spend the money or send it off but definitely get it rebuilt you won't regret it. What caliber is it?

The new Beeman Rl magnum air rif1e already has a collectors' version. Only the very first production run of these guns had the Beeman logo on the left hand side of the receiver. Even the Beeman museum has only one or two specimens of this variation, and I'm not sure that any exist in .22" caliber. There certainly are no legitimate specimens of this variation in 5mm caliber.

[Bennie]

John mine says Beeman on the side and it is a 22 caliber. My buddie says he thinks this is one of the very first second version's of this rifle, buy the hole's in recever. He said the first one's only had one hole and mine has two. He is not sure though.

[ShooterJohn]

Is the Beeman on the left hand side of the receiver?

[Bennie]

I think it is I will have to go over to his house and look. I will take pictures and submit.

[ratassassin]

R1's are great. I think it's definitely worth trying to restore and rebuild a venerable rifle like yours. Whether it was worth the $150 will depend upon whether you can get it to shoot accurately or not afterwards, and only time will tell. But if it were me, I would have done what you did as long as the bore and crown weren't destroyed by the water. It sounds like you got a Maccari kit which would be better than putting a crappy Weihrauch spring in it. I'm convinced that Weihrauch springs are dog poop because they fade quick and lose power. They have a ridiculously short life (e.g., 500-1000 rounds). My friend replaced his main spring 4 times on his HW97k within the first year of ownership and it only maintained power after it got a Maccari spring and piston seal. (Even the mainspring on my R9 lost 50 fps over 6 months of moderate use.) The Beeman breech seals are better than the Maccari seals, though. The Maccari breech seals for my buddy's HW97k herniated too quickly due to heat. So, good luck and fingers crossed. Post some pictures and let us know how she shoots after the rebuild. By the way, you'll need to build a spring compressor. The Weihrauchs have considerable spring pre-load. RA

[Bennie]

You are right all the parts came from Maccari. It was still shooting at 713 fps after all these years. I will take pictures and run it across the chroney when we get done with it. I shot my friends R1 and after shooting it, I knew he was the guy to rebuild mine for me. I could really tell a differance in the way it shot and felt while I was shooting it. So much Smoother and faster.

[mackeralboy]

Hold on to that R1! It's an heirloom to be passed on.

[socalmatt]

I just rebuilt this San Rafael R-1 .20 With the same parts you ordered. I think you will be very Happy. You have a classic that deserves to be tuned up. BTW the first guns had two scope stop holes and the later had three.

[ratassassin]

That's a gorgeous rifle, Matt. Nice job.RA

[Bennie]

I was all excited thought I had something special. Well I went and worked on my pellet rifle last night and it is a three hole as far as the scope stops go, and the Beeman logo is on the right side. Oh well hope it shoots well when I am done. I will post pictures as soon as I get it put back together.

[socalmatt]

Hey Bennie it sounds like your gun is a Santa Rosa Beeman. A San Rafael or Santa Rosa Beeman is special. The new guns are nice but the old ones are my favorite.

[Bennie]

Need some help so I can get my air rifle back together. What I need to know is who makes a real good piston seal for it?

[Bennie]

I do not know a lot about air rifles and still need to buy a quality piston seal for mine. Could use a little help choosing a good one. ????

[ratassassin]

E-mail or call Jim Maccari and ask him for a recommendation. Or, if he doesn't have any, you can always buy one from Beeman. Just phone them in Huntington Beach, CA. You can get the number off their website. Give them the serial number from your rifle and see if they can date it. It will help them send you the right one since sometimes parts vary in guns depending upon what year the gun was made. And PM socalmatt. He probably replaced the piston seal when he rebuilt his R1 and can tell you what he used. RA

[socalmatt]

I would order 2 seals from this guy. You might have to fit the seal. Get 2 because you might screw one up and you don't want to have to pay shipping twice for a small seal. Here is a link.http://www.airrifleh...485/1307073.htm

[Bennie]

I believe that is who I got my last seal from. I am not sure my buddie ordered it for me. It was from J Maccari. I did not want to do this but lets just say I was not happy with what showed up. I e-mailed him first and told him, I thought I had got a bad seal. I also told him I was air gun stupid. The seal I received from him did not look as concentric as the ones in the picture. The out side lip was way out of round. I measured it with a micrometer. It was 20 thousandths on one side and 55 thousandths straight across from it. Like I said I am air gun stupid, but if that piston ring was going in my car I would not use it. I may be wrong here and any one feel free to shoot me down if I am. But I would rather put the old seal in my gun than use what showed up. I wrote him an e-mail and tried to explain this, and asked him what to do about it. He did not offer to even look at it. He did tell me that I could return it for a full refund. I just wanted mine replaced with one that had a lip that looked like it was the same size all the way around. I do not know if I am right or not, like I said I am air gun stupid, but I am not all that dumb when it comes to how things work. I have worked on a lot of things in my life where precision was required and I did not see any in the seal I was sent. Every thing else he sent me was above standard and perfect. Sometimes people have off days at the same time and this is what happens. I am probably wrong on this one, but my buddie that suggested these parts said he would not put this seal in one of his guns. He also says this J. Maccari is the the man when it comes to making springs and other stuff. I really do not know what to say. I think if he would have at least offered to take a second look at what he sent me this would not have happened. He also put some legal stuff in the e-mail he sent me preventing me from posting it here or I would.

[socalmatt]

Hey Bennie, I don't know what to tell you about the seal you got from Maccari. I've ordered spring kits and piston seals for several guns from him and never had any issues. Try calling Beeman or order one from V-mach. You can try the old seal also if it doesn't look cut or cracked. If the old seal is cut it wont seal properly and your gun will be slow. Here is a link to a company that sells V-mach parts.http://www.airgunbuy.....0Custom Parts

[Jeff213]

You could always buff away the other side of the seal to thin it down to the same size, however I would have to see a picture of the seal to know if this would work. It also depends on how tightly the seal fits in your compression tube. You could install it and chronograph the gun, I don't think the seal will cause any damage if it isnt making a good seal, it will just shoot really slow. Sometimes macari seals have to be made smaller to properly fit. I however have never resealed a beeman gun, only RWS Diana guns. I kept the old seal in one of the guns, and put 2 Macari seals in 2 other guns.

[Bennie]

Better late than never. I finally got it all back together with new parts. It is shooting great. Ran the first few shots over chrono and am getting 750 to 760 fps. I think it will speed up as it breaks in new parts. It is a lot smoother and with less vibration than before. Seems to be more acurate than I remember too. I am glad I did it. I will be putting on a cheap scope to try out soon. Anyways here is a picture of an air rifle that I have had for a long time that is shooting better than it did when it was new.

[ShooterJohn]

That a nice airgun. Be sure the scope you use is rated for a springer airgun or it will knock the insides out of it.

[Bennie]

Well I threw the scope on it that I bought, my self off e-bay for my own christmas present. Shot it a few times and I like it. It is good enough for what I am going to do with this air rifle. Seems to shoot pertty flat out to 20 YDS. I beleive I am ready to go gopher hunting in the front yard. Here is rifle with scope and a couple of groups I shot with it to day. Shooting off of fiberglass shooting sticks no rear rest. I will shoot gun off of a bag rest to a greater distance on another day and start trying to figure out a drop chart for it.10 YDS20 YDS

[ShooterJohn]

What scope did you get?

[Bennie]

What scope did you get?

It is called a Center Point. It is an air rifle scope I bought off e-bay. It was $40.00 buy it now deal. Seems to shoot ok so far. It is clear enough for the ranges I will be shooting with this rifle. Got the mount with it too. That is what I was after. I will see how long it last. I do not know anything about them at all. My buddie said it would work to see if I wanted a scope on it. Now that I have shot it with scope, I like it. It has been a long time scince I have shot an air rifle very much. I am glad I am picking it back up. It is going to improve all of my shooting I can tell already. I have always said that being a good shot is a perishable comodity. I think being able to pick this thing up and walk out front door and shoot 10 or 20 times a day from different shooting positions is going to help my shooting quite a bit. I am already starting to see and work on mistakes I am makeing. I have let myself get sloppy by not shooting enough.

[ShooterJohn]

That's a good price for an airgun quality scope. I agree about the shooting keeping you sharp. I have an in the house 25yard range and try to shoot a couple of hundred rounds a week mostly free hand. I don't think you can ever shoot too much.

[bigunn0_0]

Resently got a beeman crow magnum that has a bushnel called [Trophy] and I can't get any height out of it.I talked to a guy a pirimid air and he was saying that the scope might be my problem, as it is a meduim recoil scope and should be a heavy recoil. New at this so get a scope that will take the recoil.

[Bennie]

i bought a beeman from big 5....has the 177 and 22 barrels...the scope it came with max's out to the left and is still 2 inches short...and its not consistant, but iron sights it shoots good, i paid 150 for the gun id like to buy a new scope maybe ill buy one of these center points since ur recomending em, damn rws scope i want is double that

Shahan I am not recomending this scope one way or another at this time. If you look at my post # 20 I said that I bought a cheap scope off of e-bay. I do not know if it will last on this air rifle. The last scope I put on this gun would not shoot consistently ever, and it only took three days of shooting before it was totally messed up. The scope that messed up was not an air rifle scope. I took it off and went back to iron sights, and never looked back. I just rebuilt this air rifle with the help of a freind. He has a couple of R-1's. One of his has a center point on it and I asked about it. He told me where I could get one off of e-bay cheep, so I bought it to try. I paid $40.00 for it and the mount. That is cheep compared to what I useually pay for scopes. I do not know any thing about this scope and very little about air rifles. There is people on here that are much more knowlageable than I am about air rifles and air rifles scopes. I will say that this one seems to be OK so far. I have not shot it very much with this scope. As a matter of fact I am going to do a post on it in the scope forum asking some questions about it myself. It did not come with instructions and I was hopeing someone on here could answer a couple of questions I have about the turret's the stadius line's in the scope. What I beleive I was told by my friend, is this Center Point scope was made by Hawke Optics for Crosman air rifles. Don't quote me on this. I am going to do some checking myself. All I am trying to say is don't try one, because I am trying one. I am just doing this because I am saving for another scope right now that will cost around $1800.00 for another large caliber rifle that I am trying to get together. You can try one if you want, but I would ask several people on here what to buy. Be honest with them and tell them how much you want to spend and I think you will get a good recommendation. Good hunting and good luck.